


Haunted By The Ghost Of You

by theandrogynousdragon



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Because of the purge, Character Turned Into a Ghost, Everyone has magic, Except Uther, Gen, Ghosts, Grief/Mourning, Gwaine's parents died in Camelot because canon can't tell me no, Haunting, Heavy Angst, Kinda, Mental Instability, Mentions of Cancer, Oh My God, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Tragedy, What Have I Done, enchanted forest, genocide mention, ghosts being ghosts, literally everyone else is dead though, only because Merlin is immortal, slightly to the left of necromancy, some handwaving of minor characters deaths, uhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:55:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26676268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theandrogynousdragon/pseuds/theandrogynousdragon
Summary: No one really died in Camelot. Not quite.
Relationships: Gwen & Merlin (Merlin), Gwen/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Ygraine de Bois/Uther Pendragon (Merlin), implied Nimueh/Vivienne
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	Haunted By The Ghost Of You

**Author's Note:**

> This fic includes heavy angst and some graphic depictions of child death and mental instability, just fyi.

* * *

* * *

No one knew when the ghosts had first started to appear, but it was an open secret that no one _really_ died in Camelot. Not quite, anyway. Of course, only magic users could hear or see them. Which was why people were very quiet about it if they had some latent ability and happened to see their dead lover. 

Sometimes the dead came back vengeful, angry, _strange_. 

Sometimes they came back silent, or grieving. 

Sometimes they came back not realizing they'd died at all. 

But they always... _came_ _back_.

* * *

Gwen first heard her mother's ghost when she was seven years old, the day after the fire. (That was how her father always said it. “The fire.” Not “the execution.” Just- _fire_.) She knew what it meant, and it scared her. She told no one for many years. (She didn't want to _burn._ )

Balinor only ever saw his kin, and it made him angry, made him _bitter_. (He never saw Hunith, and he clung to that solace unto his dying breath.)

Nimueh saw... so many. And they blamed her, angry and vicious and _screaming, always screaming_. It drove her _mad_ , and she reveled in it. How could she not? If they called her a monster, then she would show them one. (She never saw Vivienne, weeping, silent, grieving for the might-have-been.)

Elyan only saw one ghost, the drowned druid boy, and that ghost never left him. (The boy took his hand, and the pain was gone. Sir Elyan the Just watched over what remained of his family and friends, a little boy at his side, until they joined him one by one.)

Ygraine didn't know she was dead, not at first. Then she tried to pick up her wailing child—a son, _Arthur_ —and found that she could not. She followed her husband to the balcony, and saw her first witch's pyre, and screamed at Uther until her ghostly voice was gone. Uther never heard her, but she never stopped trying to get it through his thick skull that she _never wanted this, what are you doing, there are_ _ **children**_ _, please!_

Percival could see his dead family, but they were as quiet as he was. Just as well. He wouldn't have been able to bear their accusations. He blamed himself enough.

Gaius saw the dead, yes, but they were silent as the graves they came from. He didn't need to hear them to know what their angry eyes meant. (He saw Alice, one day, and his poor heart broke.)

Lancelot heard voices. Lancelot heard voices, and firmly closed the door on any speculation he might have had about it. He heard voices. He never told anyone that. He could also light things on fire with his mind, but that was beside the point and he never told anyone that, either. (It was very strange, a few months after the Veil, to see his _body_ move and be standing _right_ _here_.)

Arthur heard and saw no one, but sometimes, out of the corner of his eye, on the edge of his hearing, well. He liked to think his mother was there. It was a nice thought.

Morgana saw the dead and heard them too, and thought for many years that it was a side effect of her dreams. Then there was Morgause, and she knew the truth, and she was so, so _angry_. (There were no ghosts in Sarrum's pit, and the _silence_ was what caused her sanity to crumble, in the end.)

Gwaine heard his dead parents, and knew _exactly_ what his father thought of him. The constant commentary was actually kind of nice, until his sister joined them. Then he wished he couldn't hear at all.

Merlin didn't know about the ghosts until he arrived in Camelot. Sometimes, he wouldn't realize the person he was talking to was dead until someone asked why he was talking to himself. Most of them though, were quite horrid to look at. Merlin never saw them like most people did. He saw the dead exactly as they had been at the moment of their death, and considering all the burnings and beheadings and hangings... It was really no wonder he had so many nightmares.

(Ygraine was actually very kind, once he stopped getting unsettled by the blood soaking her dress and listened to what she had to say. She was also an awful cheat at cards, according to her equally-ghostly-and-a-bit-singed handmaid. Merlin never saw Will or his father, because they hadn't died in Camelot. He never saw Freya, either, because she wasn't quite dead in the... _traditional_ sense.) 

He saw the knights, eventually, but never Arthur. (He didn't see his mother after her death, either, and it scared him to realize he would forget what she looked like one day.)

* * *

The Queen was just Gwen, right now. And Gwen was _dying_. An illness of the blood not even _his_ magic could halt or cure. “You can hear them, can't you?” Gwen whispered, a strange look in her eyes.

“W-what?” Merlin stammered, a frisson of terror sliding down his spine, even after all these years. He had been _born_ in that fear; it would never fully leave him, no matter what the law or public opinion said.

“The dead, Merlin.”

Merlin glanced at the tiny girl standing in the corner, smiling encouragingly at him, rope burn around her little throat, eyes permanently golden-bright. “...Yes. Yes, I hear them, too.”

“Good, so you'll be able to hear me, after,” Gwen rasped, coughing sharply.

“Hey, don't, don't say that, there's still- I can still- I'm sure there's- _you're_ _not allowed to die on me, Guinevere._ I forbid it. _I'm_ the physician, here, remember?” he said, desperately, tears splashing on their clasped hands.

“Elyan, where, is Elyan here?” Elyan materialized at her side, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“He's right here, Gwen.”

“M-my parents?”

“They're here too. They're all here, it's alright now.” He wanted to do something, _anything_ , anything at all, but there was nothing he could do. Merlin watched Gwen slip away, out of her body, to join all the others who had gone before her.

* * *

Emrys flew into a rage born of grief, slamming healing spells into the castle floors until the entire citadel was covered in massive vines and trees and flowers. 

And the corpse of Her Lady Guinevere Pendragon, First of Her Glorious Name, Rightful Queen of Albion and the Britons, laid in state at the center of a magical forest for one and a half thousand years, refusing to rot. 

...No one really died, in Camelot. Not quite. They always... _came back_ , after all. 

* * *

* * *


End file.
